Thursday, January 9, 2014

Puffy Kitty Lips :)

Harvey is an unusually smart cat. He often watches me train my Beagle, Oliver, and will do exactly whatever I am training Oliver to do. For instance, I was working on one jump work with Oliver. This is something that I've never done with Harvey. Harvey sat and watch me shaping Oliver to jump. After about a minute or so, Oliver stopped and starred at me. He seemed to be stuck. Harvey came over took them jump, looked at Oliver, and walked off. It was as if he was saying "This is what you do to get the click, silly".

It had been a long time since my last training session with Harv. Finally, Harvey and I got back into training. After watching me train Oliver for the last few months, I'm sure he was more than happy to get to work. But this time, I noticed something. I could actually tell that he was happy by his physical appearance. Before, I would just be able to tell that he was happy because he would join me. But this time, he fanned out his whiskers and appeared to puff out his tiny kitty lips where his whiskers are too. This is something I've never seen him do in everyday life. His whole face lit up like he was in heaven! That is exactly what I want to see when we dance! So, now, I have a physical sign to let me know he is having a great time... puffy kitty lips! Maybe that is his way of smiling?